Featured Domains

GoDaddy Switches Back to .Com as Default Search Option

About 24 hours after promoting .co to the top of its search box, domain name registrar GoDaddy has switched back to .com. But .co remains the second option for people searching for domains at the world’s largest domain name registrar.

GoDaddy frequently runs tests, such as changing the prices of domain registration a couple bucks up or down to measure the effects. Moving .co to the top of the list was just such as test, yet it was certainly an aggressive one. It replaced a domain that costs about $12 a year with one that’s $30. .Co is also very close to .com, which could have led to confusion. I’m sure customer confusion was one thing the registrar evaluated during the test.

1. The change won’t last at GoDaddy. Looks like a cheap bait and switch ploy. People will complain and/or traffic will drop or be redirected. You can try and force .co on the average man on the street/lead a horse to water but you can’t make him buy a .co/drink

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Look, I love the free market and speculation and have no problem with people buying .co and flipping (which probably 90% of people are doing) but that’s it folks.

When the hype is gone and the speculators have moved on (or got burnt by their .co speculation) what’s left?

A handful of developers that MAY have the faith to really build out their .co but they all know that it’s not the .com so most developers will give up too.

Then when renewal times comes around… crickets. .co domains will be dropping like cement blocks from the sky.

Not sure why I am so passionate about this.

Maybe because I don’t want to see newbies drop $10k and sell one domain for $1k and think there’s more where that came from.

Maybe because I’ve seen this before in stocks, real estate, beanie babies, silver in 1980, .me .name MySpace etc.

Hype and crash. Just seems to be the business cycle these days. Get in and get out but don’t be the last one in.

Also, .co is NOT the typo for .com. Let’s please at least agree to that.

LOL deep down, people who didn’t buy this .CO are scared to death. Why not get in now before it is really late. You this thing is a winner, in my opinion. It’s going to keep making you uncomfortable every other month as gains in momentum. Imagine that .CO actually took for place at Godaddy for almost 24hours, before being demoted temporarily to number 2 in less than 4 months, who would have guessed that a few months ago? The action for .CO will come from overseas, and yes, Overstock is leading the charge. Never mind t.co, x.co, etc You will wake up one day and the tran has left the station… get on!

.co is and will always be a great CCtld, and it will contain typo-traffic for.com on “some”bigger traffic names. That’s it. The rest is short-term speculation. Would you build your foundation in Columbia’s legal system? What if there’s a government coup some time in future? I think Rob is right that this is a speculators playground. The registration base it will go up and then settle back down in a line resembling a camel’s hump. The rela winner iss the registry operator over the next few years and the loser s are those who spent large volumes with that registry operator instead of buying a good .com